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Japan and Korea

INTRODUCTION : a brief overview of the current situation regarding the security issue in the Pacific region

Since the end of the Second World War, the shape of the relations between the nations in the Pacific region has stayed more or less the same way until the present. However, there has been one big changed that affected the situation in the Pacific region and it was the outbreak of the Korean war and the creation of a Communist North Korea. This brought a huge inevitable change in relations between countries in the region. The stability that was brought about with the end of the Second World War disappeared and a new type of tension appeared. This especially affected the relations between the Korea and Japan to a great extent. In the past few years, the two countries have been seeking cooperation for the common aim of keeping the security in the Pacific region but things did not always work out fine due to many reasons including the historic background of two countries. In this paper, the historical background, the chronology of main events, the development of the relations and the current situation regarding the security and cultural issues, between Korea and Japan will be examined and analysed, which will be followed by a conclusion.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The relations between and Korea and Japan has a long history. The first exchange of goods and information between the two goes back to the era of Three Countries and since then the relations between the two developed both in good and bad ways until now. There has always been lack of balance of power between the two nations. Back in thousands of years ago, Korea was the one that had more power and helped Japan develop her culture and since the late Chosun era, Japan has been the more powerful one. Conflicts between Korea and Japan continued and the ill feelings towards each other reached the top when Japan colonized Korea. As a result, the history of the Korea-Japan relations is full of...

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Japan, otherwise known as, The Land of Rising Sun, is located in Eastern Asia and is slightly smaller than California. With a population of 127,368,088 the majority of the population are Japanese. The people are 98.5% Japanese, .5% Korean, .4% Chinese, and .6% other. The average age of the people is 45.4 years, 0-14 years makes up 13.5% of the population, 62.6% 15-64, and 23.9% other. Much of the population practice both Shintoism and Buddhism religions, while about 9% follow other religions.
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